an insatiable appetite for my region by VINCENT NATTRESS

Coprinus Comatus welcomes us home

I thought I was in heaven returning from an overnight stay in Westport on the Washington Coast. We had gone for the first Razor Clam opening of the season and had limited out in short order. Last night we feasted on pan fried razors in a rented cabin and we had just arrive back home with plans of another razor clam binge when what did I find popping their heads out of the ground right next to our front door? A cluster of Shaggy Mane Mushrooms.

When I was a kid here in Coupeville they used to come up right in our lawn in the fall. The Shaggy Mane will turn to black, dripping ooze if left to long in he ground. When they have first immerged the flesh inside the gills is pink and the flavor is mild and delicious.

My five year old daughter did the preparation tonight: she split the caps and shredded them with her fingers, then sauted them in butter and garlic until all the liquid had evaporated. Delicious! We ate them right out of the saute pan with our fingers.

More on the clamming trip to follow soon, but for now, keep your eyes out this week for Shaggy Manes.

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Welcome

This blog is an exploration of my region's food, season by season. I will focus on foraging, farming and how to cook what I find. I will also discuss food politics and the history of what we eat and why.

Foraging often reveals traditions that make this region unique. I will do my best to remind us of some of these vanishing traditions, because they reveal a lot about our cultural history.

Agriculture shapes the landscape we live in. Right now farming is undergoing a critical transition. More than ever we all need to understand the importance of diverse, regional food production, for what it means to our region, our bucolic surroundings, the safety and stability of our food system and our own personal health.

Exploring these food issues reveals a lot about our environmental and economic issues too. I will ask questions about the ways in which we are changing our food systems and how, as a result, our food is changing us.

This is a bountiful area, but also a changing area, and population growth, environmental degradation and vanishing food traditions threaten to change the way we feed ourselves forever.

Food is a lens through which to view where we are and how we got here. Because of this we can begin to ask the question about what to do next, so that we can live our lives more deliciously while leaving something behind that is worthy of the next generation.